Title: Separation of magnetic field lines

The field lines of magnetic fields that depend on three spatial coordinates are shown to have a fundamentally different behavior from those that depend on two coordinates. Unlike two-coordinate cases, a flux tube in a magnetic field that depends on all three spatial coordinates that has a circular cross section at one location along the tube characteristically has a highly distorted cross section at other locations. In an ideal evolution of a magnetic field, the current densities typically increase. Crudely stated, if the current densities increase by a factor {sigma}, the ratio of the long to the short distance across a cross section of a flux tube characteristically increases by e{sup 2{sigma}}, and the ratio of the longer distance to the initial radius increases as e{sup {sigma}}. Electron inertia prevents a plasma from isolating two magnetic field structures on a distance scale shorter than c/{omega}{sub pe}, which is about 10 cm in the solar corona, and reconnection must be triggered if {sigma} becomes sufficiently large. The radius of the sun, R{sub Circled-Dot-Operator }=7 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 10}cm is about e{sup 23} times larger, so when {sigma} Greater-Than-Or-Equivalent-To 23, two lines separated by c/{omega}{sub pe} at one location can be separated bymore » the full scale of any magnetic structures in the corona at another. The conditions for achieving a large exponentiation, {sigma}, are derived, and the importance of exponentiation is discussed.« less